Just wanted to report on my progress on the revision. I finished the over-700-page (!!) Douglass biography this week and took some notes that may be helpful in thinking about my novel, plus a few that I may blog about later.
I make steady progress when I set to work on the novel revision, but I did catch myself putting it off, too. There was an article I quite liked on NY Times https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/25/smarter-living/why-you-procrastinate-it-has-nothing-to-do-with-self-control.html that suggests if you manage your mood about a specific task, you are more likely to complete it. So I spent a little time asking myself what may have affected my mood about this revision because overall, I have been interested in seeing what emerges by shifting Point Of View.
I realized that I have FOMU—fear of messing up. As much as I am inspired by this idea to revise and re-vision how this book should unfold, I can’t shake the fear that I am going to mess it up. In some ways, that fear is hard to counter because while I don’t think I am going to mess it up, I can’t guarantee I won’t. I can’t guarantee that what I am writing now works, so how can I guarantee that this revision will work? The best I can do is to remind myself that I write not to achieve writing success, as pleasant as that might be. I write because I love to write. And if I love to write, why not see where this revision might lead?
reader. writer. 